Court Tells DOJ To Cough Up The Other Secret Memos That Justify Killing People By Drone

from the no-more-hiding-death-from-the-skies-justification dept

Last week, we wrote about how the DOJ finally released (a heavily redacted) copy of its memo authorizing drone use for killing Americans (though, some have pointed out that the memo was written well after the US started trying to kill Americans with drones). More importantly, we noted that the memo actually pointed to another secret memo as part of the justification. It's secret memo on top of secret memo, all the way down. The ACLU went back to court to see about getting its hands on that other memo, and the court has now ordered the DOJ to cough up any such memos related to killing people with drones. Specifically, the judge has ordered the DOJ to provide:

Unredacted copies of the "other legal memoranda prepared by OLC and at issue here"
that are the subject of the Mandate (hereinafter "The OLC Opinions")

Furthermore, the court is curious why the DOJ didn't provide those documents already. Thus, it also has asked the DOJ to provide a memo under seal explaining itself as to why it didn't already release those memos. The government now has three weeks to comply, though, I imagine the DOJ will try to come up with some way to protest all of this, because that's what the DOJ tends to do.

And.....

ACLU: "You were told to give an unredacted memo"DOJ: "It's no redacted"ACLU: "What's all that black stuff blocked out?"DOJ: "Um...new font called "ACLU type"ACLU: "Look, I know redacted when I see and I'm looking at it right now"DOJ: "It's pineing for the feuds."

Probably time for a NSA Blackmailing to this group of "errant" judges I guess.

Can't have a bout of integrity ruin the game plan now after all. Time to get these judges back into marching order and singing the right tune.

Nothing like a video of a judge's mistress earning her keep, or pictures of his kids sleeping in their beds with a masked man holding a knife inches above their heads, to get almost anyone "back on track".